Heaven knows we need never be ashamed of our tears, for they are rain upon the blinding dust of earth, overlying our hard hearts.
~Charles Dickens, Great Expectations, 1860

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Future of Fiji military

Anyone in its right mind when viewing how our country has suffered because of military intervention into our elected governments, either directly or indirectly will surely say that to solve the problem, there is only one way - abolish the military!

Now maybe that is too drastic because there are really some good, valuable, intelligent and hard working military personnel, who know where their real mission in military lives lie, and it is definitely NOT to interfere with politics.

Therefore, it would be best that the military is downsized only to a manageable number that would serve on missions overseas, and the rest of their million dollar fund be redirected to education, medicine, infrastructure, etc, etc.

At the end of the day, do you see educators or doctors and nurses or town planners overtaking a democratically elected government? The answer is NO!

The reason is simple-educators, nurses, doctors, etc DON'T have GUNS!Fiji regime ‘has no views’ on NCBBF papers 11 JUN 2008 Interim Prime Minister Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama says his government and the military have taken no official position on findings and recommendations on the future role of the army.

Bainimarama, who is also the army commander, made the comment after an Issues and Discussion Paper (IDP) prepared by a National Council for Building a Better Fiji working group looked at the role of the military in national development.

He said the issues brought in the IDP were only for discussions and comments.

In a statement, Bainimarama said that the subject of size and role of military always attracted most attention and interest from critics, experts as well as ordinary members of the public.

He said he was closely following the views expressed because it was important to have wide-ranging discussions on this important subject.

Bainimarama clarified that the focus on size of the military was only one of the many options highlighted in the IDP.

He’s emphasised that it’s premature for anybody interested in this subject to form a position or expect their views to be accepted in entirety in determining the final outcome on this important subject.